


Being Romantic

by afteriwake



Series: Simple As It Should Be [15]
Category: CSI: NY
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 12:53:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flack had always believed he didn't have a romantic bone in his body. He wanted to prove himself wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being Romantic

Flack wasn't one for romantic gestures. That was one thing most of his previous girlfriends had brought up when their relationships would inevitably end. And it wasn't for fault of trying, really. He just wasn't much of a romantic guy, and the thought usually didn't occur to him until it was too late. And, if he was going to be honest about it, most of the relationships weren't terribly serious in the first place.

Something was different with Lindsay, though. For one thing, they'd worked together for about a year before they actually became friends. Or maybe that wasn't true; he'd gone from tolerating her to respecting her fairly quickly, and at some point before the explosion he had started to consider her a friend. Maybe not a close one, but she was a friend. _After_ the explosion they really did become close. And it wasn't until he'd come back to work that it had become something else.

That hadn't been the way most of his relationships had happened. Ever.

Around the end of January he'd started to feel that maybe he should do something on Valentine's Day for her. That was probably his least favorite holiday of the year, and it always had been. He just wasn't sure what to _do_.

But he knew two people to ask...

\---

Stella looked at him over her coffee. The two were standing outside the labs, waiting for Hawkes to bring a car out of the motor pool so they could get to a possible secondary scene. "Okay, let me get this straight. You want to be romantic? And you don't know how to be?"

"More or less, Stell," he said with a shrug.

She nodded slowly. "I'm assuming this is for Lindsay, right?"

He glared slightly. "Yeah."

"You know, anything you do for her that's a nice gesture is going to mean a lot to her. You don't need to go all out." She tilted her head slightly. "But I will make one suggestion."

"Yeah?"

"Don't wait till Valentine's Day. Surprise her by doing it before then. I mean, have a nice dinner or something that night, but whatever you plan on doing, do it before that day." He thought about it, and just could not fathom why she'd given him that bit of advice. She must have seen the look on his face because she continued.

"Birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine's and Christmas all have so many expectations piled on them that it's almost as if you're doomed to fail. Do something romantic _before_ one of the last two on that list and then something nice on the actual day and it means more. I mean, you two made it through Christmas, right?"

He thought back to that day. It hadn't been a bad day at all, actually, but that may have been because neither of them put a lot of pressure on the day, other than her meeting his family for the first time. And they did that early, had dinner on their own, and ended up just walking around afterwards talking and ignoring the cold for a while. He grinned slightly. "Yeah, we did."

"And think about it, Flack," she said as Hawkes pulled up. "Would I lie to you about something like this?"

"Absolutely not."

\---

It wasn't until later he got to talk to Hawkes. There hadn't been much at that secondary scene to process, and when they got back to the labs, it only took a few hours for the evidence to get logged in and begin to be processed. Flack cornered Hawkes while he took his break.

Flack explained a little of what he wanted to do and Hawkes grinned. He'd helped Flack plan his first few dates with Lindsay, mostly because the detective hadn't wanted to make a fool of himself and Hawkes liked Lindsay well enough that he didn't want to see either of them make a huge mess of things.

"So you want to surprise her?" Hawkes asked.

"Something like that."

"I take it you already talked to Stella."

Flack nodded. "Whatever I do, I want to do it in the next week. Before Valentine's."

"You wouldn't get to do anything on Valentine's anyway; Lindsay's going to have to work and I get the feeling that if the cases keep up at this rate, it's going to be a late night around here for everyone, including her."

"All the more reason to do it earlier."

"What do you think she'd like?"

Flack thought about it. And then he remembered something she'd said a few days back after a particularly long day at work, when she was rubbing her neck trying to work some kinks out. "How much do you know about spas, Hawkes?"

\---

She couldn't believe it, she thought as she sank into the hot water, letting it rise up to her chin. This was probably the nicest thing anyone she'd ever dated had done for her. And it wasn't even Valentine's Day yet! The night before he'd come over to her place and handed her an envelope and said she was not going to be on call today, and to bring a swimsuit and maybe a book. She'd just given him a look until she opened up the envelope.

Full day at the spa. Anything she wanted to do was covered. Massage, body wraps...anything. She knew how much this kind of stuff cost; he was probably going to live on Ramen for a paycheck or two to cover this, but he must have thought it was worth it or he wouldn't have done it. When she asked why he was doing this for her he sort of shrugged and said he thought she'd like it.

There was so much she wanted to try, but she'd decided just a little pampering would go a long way: massage, one of those warm rock treatments she'd heard about, and a mud bath followed by a soak in the Jacuzzi. That was all she really wanted out of the day, just some time to unwind and relax. Forget about her job for a little while and...

She shut her eyes and smiled. Whoever said Flack didn't have a romantic bone in his body, and she was pretty sure that had been Danny, had no clue at all. This gesture was...wonderful. It was perfect. And, she realized quietly to herself, things like this were one of the reasons she was slowly starting to fall in love with him.

She was very lucky indeed.


End file.
